How Can I Make my Staff More Efficient? – Top 8 Tips
After reading what staff efficiency is you might be thinking “how can I make my staff more efficient”? That’s why I have created a series of tips that I’ve put together in order for you to gain the most out of your employees;
- Delegate
There may come a time where you’ll need assistance in a specific area, entrepreneurs do become a creature of habit by doing everything themselves. Why not delegate tasks to your staff, goals will be reached a lot sooner this way.
- Ensure they have the skills you need
Do they have the skills you require? Don’t be afraid to arrange a meeting to discuss what exactly they want out of working here and what you need from them. A lot of people are keen on challenges and appreciate you acknowledging their skills. When they feel trusted and valued they are more likely to succeed.
- Communicate effectively
Make yourself approachable to your employees by maintaining good communication everyday, professional and sometimes personal. It’s important to create a good work atmosphere for your employees as their productivity levels increase when they are happier and feel looked after as staff.
- Keep goals clear & focused
You can do this by arranging a weekly/monthly meetings with your staff to ensure they know exactly what goals are for that week/month. It is also a great way to communicate with your staff to get some input and suggestions that will help you reach these goals.
Ensure you are all on the same page and involve everybody in these goals, work together to achieve greatness.
- Incentivize employees
Arrange certain rewards for when goals have been met. Not only will your employees feel truly accomplished and feel satisfied at work for their achievements, but the business will benefit from these achievements too.
- Cut out the excess
No, this doesn’t mean fire the useless employees, it’s about assessing their workload and allowing more time for the more important tasks that need to be completed sooner.
- Train and develop your employees
If your team are not at the stage where you would like them to be – train them! Arrange workshops, lectures, training camps to utilise the opportunity, everybody is always willing to learn more, and as a result, you gain the outcome of those newly developed skills. You may not have the time or money to do this but it will truly benefit your company in the long run. There are cheaper options such as purchasing books, online seminars, coaching, mentoring. This way there will be fewer mistakes, more effort, new achievements to be put into practice.
- Embrace Telecommuting
It might sound like a bad idea at first but it is very common nowadays. You don’t need to have your employees constantly under your nose so you can make sure they are being productive. Allowing your employees to telecommute will save time that would have been wasted, an example of this would be if you have a 48 hour vomiting rule to avoid passing on the illness,then instead of forcing them to take the 48 hours off allow them to work from home, if they are feeling up to it, to ensure no potential productivity time is wasted. Employees will also feel trusted and valued and will work harder to prove they can work independently.
- Be Open to Feedback
Don’t be afraid to give feedback or receive it. Constructive feedback is a great way to see yourself from someone else’s eyes and work on areas that will help you grow. In this industry thick skin is essential, it’s ok to be sensitive but when it comes to feedback take it on the chin and learn from it, it will help you in the long run. Same goes for giving feedback to your employees, they will learn from it and respect you for your honesty and dedication to helping them.
Three-month performance reviews are a great way to measure their performance, it also allows a window opportunity to see which areas they need to work on, and which areas they are succeeding in. Be open for discussion and ask them if there is any further help they need from you.
- Think about the long run
Don’t get concerned if you don’t see improvements after a week or a month, trust in your employees and improvements will happen sooner or later.
Also, don’t think you are wasting valuable time by taking these tips, you’ll be surprised how far the little things go in terms of the long-term improvements.
It’s always important to take time out to focus on your employee’s needs. There is also software in place that saves you a lot of time in terms of HR, signing up for an automated program that handles things like, payroll, onboarding, booking holidays and much more, you will have more time in your diary for your staff!
If you’d like more information or detail on any of the points raised in this article then you can get in touch with a member of our team today!
Be sure you prioritise your time well, including creating that room for your employees.
Brad Channer,
Director, Acceler8me.